Dr. John and Helen Szablya Scholarship in Power Engineering

Requirements

Awarded to Electrical Engineering students with an emphasis in power engineering

Recipients must have at least a 3.2 GPA

About the Donor

From Austria, the Szablyas were among 86 professors and their families and 200 students who immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, resettling Hungary’s Sopron School of Forestry, which became affiliated with the University of British Columbia. During the resettlement, the Szablyas served as official interpreters for the Hungarian university, and John taught a physics course for the Sopron School of Forestry. He also became professor in UBC’s electrical engineering department, where he was tenured and remained until he was recruited to Washington State University in 1963.

John and Helen remained in Pullman for 19 years, where they raised seven children. Helen attended WSU part-time and at one point was a senior at the same time as her daughter, Helen A. Szablya (’73, speech and hearing sciences). “I did my senior year in six years, starting in 1970, and she graduated in 1973,” she said with a laugh.

The family moved to Seattle in 1982, after John retired from WSU and went to work as a consultant for EBASCO, then a private engineering firm, and to teach part-time at the University of Washington. Still well loved and respected in Pullman, they were honored when two of John’s students, Steve Muchlinski and Jake Hardy, helped to create the Dr. John and Helen Szablya Scholarship Fund in Power Engineering at WSU.

To Contribute to This Fund

If you would like to make a gift to this scholarship fund, please contact:
Devon Anderson
Senior Director of Development
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science509-335-2197danders@wsu.edu